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El Pilar Festival

In Zaragoza the most important day of the year is October 12^th, the celebration of the virgin of El Pliar.  In 2009 a record 450,000 attended the festival and this year saw many people come again.  The central activity is the ‘Ofrenda’ (offering) in which thousands of people in traditional dress process with flowers that are placed around the figure of the virgin which is sitting 40 feet high with a structure around it to hold the flowers.  The people who come with the flowers are dressed in traditional outfits from their city, or village or country and belong to a group that participates every year.  This year Anatolijus wanted to do more than just watch the procession; so he and his colleague Nacho borrowed traditional Aragonese outfits and through a woman at work were able to join a national police group, process and offer flowers to the Virgin.  Anatolijus looked very ‘authentic’ in his traditional dress called Baturro and is now considered ‘Mano’, which is a person of Zaragoza. 

During the festival, the town bull ring is open and there are 12 days of bullfights planned out.  This year one of the special events was the return of Juan Jose Padilla, the bullfighter that last year was gored in the eye and almost lost his life.  We had best seats for the event and watched this incredible bullfighter brave yet again those 1000+ lbs bulls.  On one hand this seemed very brave, on the other hand…

What was most amazing was the fact that he regained all of his motor skills and put on an amazing show exactly one year later after his injuries.  He ended up getting 2 ears (best ever performance gets you 3) and he was carried out of the ring on the shourlders of his friends.  As a special gesture, he dedicated one of the bulls to the doctor who saved his life.  We were told that this doctor only specializes in bullfighter injuries and when the bullfighter enters the ring, he first looks if this doctor is there, to feel more assured for the fight.

On Saturday we decided to go for a day trip to Olite which is 1.5 hours from Zaragoza and has a fabulous castle that is not very well known.  Olite is surrounded by vineyards (Navarra region, famous for its rose and red wines) and has a number of bodegas right in the town.    The castle has been restored and rebuilt in a number of projects but the space to explore is huge and there are at least 4 or 5 towers to climb for incredible views.  The next day my legs were a little sore as the spiral staircases never seemed to end!   One of the main reasons for going to Olite was: we tried to visit last May when Edita (Anatolijus’ mom) was with us but it was raining so hard we couldn’t even get out of the car.  So when she returned this October we went back on a beautiful sunny day that showed off the interesting landscapes and geography.  We packed a picnic and ate it overlooking the Puenta le Reina which is a bridge that brings the two paths of the “Way of Saint James” together as pilgrims then make their way to the famous Santiago de Compostella.    The bridge is in a small town of Gare and is about 30 mins from Olite and while we were there a number of pilgrims passed by on the bridge.  It was a very ideal place for an afternoon picnic.

That evening, to say our goodbyes to the festival of el Pilar, we went downtown without kids to see the Rosario de Cristal (crystal rosary), which is a procession of people, dressed in traditional costumes, carrying candles, floats made of glass and chanting the entire rosary.  We had a cerveza nearby and finished our evening at an amazing vegetarian restaurant called Baobab.

Then was Monday.  Back to reality, which takes a couple of days getting used to.   

On a separate note, just before the Pilares, we had our very good friends Alma and Evaldas visit us from Lithuania.  We had them only for a few nights, but managed to cover Spanish cooking, Spanish wines, some key tourist attractions and just catch up.  It was very wonderful to see them again and speak some Lithuanian.

The City of Lights!

Click on the pic above to see the pictures from the trip.

In the summer of 2010 when we told Grace and Tessa we were moving to Spain we promised them we would take them to Paris.  On September 15th we made good on our promise and spent 3 days in the City of Lights.  There is a Ryanair flight that goes directly from Zaragoza to Beauvais airport which is one hour and fifteen minutes north west of Paris.  There is a direct shuttle bus into the city so it was very easy and then we took the metro and had to walk 10 mins to our 'hostel'.  We were very fortunate to find out about a Catholic hostel that is in the heart of Paris, 1.5 blocks off the Champs-Élysées, and is reasonably priced.  Adveniat is the association and they provide you with sheets and we had two rooms with private bathrooms.  The place is very modern and nice with friendly helpful people.

The first morning we headed out and walked 25 mins along the river to the Eiffel Tower.  It has been a while since we were all very excited to see something and we were not disappointed.  We bought 'skip the line' tickets and had a great guide who made it very interesting.  Did you know Gustave Eiffel had to pay 80 percent of the cost to erect the tower for the World's Fair and then as a way to recoup his money he made a deal that he would get the revenue for the next 20 years?  (By the way, the tower was supposed to be taken completely down after the fair of 6 months)  Interestingly he made all his money back in the first 6 months!  The day was sunny and clear so the views were spectacular and Anatolijus took amazing photos.  Grace and Tessa were a little nervous when we took the elevator to the sommet (summit) but the view from the very top was incredible.

Following our time at the Eiffel Tower we took a taxi down to the Latin Quarter where a former colleague of Anatolijus now lives.  She and her partner had invited us to their apartment for lunch and it was so lovely to be 'in' a neighborhood and not just looking at it.  The lunch prepared by them was amazing and by far the best meal we had in Paris, thanks to our friends.  After eating we went for a walk to Pont Neuf and then to Notre Dame, it was Sunday and a Mass was starting so we were able to enter for free to look around.  We walked through the Latin Quarter and the girls each got gelato which was scooped to make a flower - lovely and tasty.

On our second day we headed out walking once again but this time we went up to the Champs-Élysées around the Place de la Concord and then through the Tuileries Gardens to the Louvre.  We had not planned to go to the Louvre but the line-up was short so we went and hit the highlights of Mona Lisa, Venus di Milo, Winged Victory and some of the Egyptian display (Grace's choice).  After our whirlwind tour we had to walk very quickly to the George's Pompidou Centre where we had reservations for lunch at the roof top restaurant.  The lunch was very nice the sun came out just as we were eating and we had great views of Sacre Coeur, Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame.  One food reviewer described this restaurant as “The food was amazing.  I do not remember what I was eating because of the view”.  It was true.  We were then ready for another 2.5 hour stint viewing the history of Modern Art which was fabulous.  The girls really enjoyed it as well and interestingly Grace said she liked the feel of Pompidou better than the Louvre.  At the end of our time we went to the children's gallery where they had an interactive display about funny things children say when they are little.  Grace and Tessa each wrote and drew their example and then they got to videotape their examples which are shown in the exhibit!   The museum then emailed it to us they will be included in the videos that are playing in the gallery - very cool! So you could say our girls were displayed in a museum J.

We were all tired after our long day so we had a coffee at a cafe looking at the modern Art museum, the building is 'inside out' and very fun to look at.  We then got subway sandwiches and took the Metro back to our hostel.  At 8:45pm we got ready and walked 10 minutes down to the river Seine to see the Eiffel tower lit up and then at 9pm on the dot the whole tower sparkled for 5 minutes - muy bonito!  We ended the evening sitting in the lounge of our hostel checking Internet and reading children's bedtime stories.

The highlight of our last day was visiting San Chappelle which is a small chapel where Louis IV kept the relics from the Holy Land (supposedly the actual Crown of Thorns!).  The amazing thing about this chapel is that the whole thing is stained glass.  They are in the process of restoring the windows and the process is incredible.  People who love puzzles and have an amazing attention to detail are good candidates for that job.  The rest of the day involved Anatolijus needing to be on a three hour call with work and the girls and I buying Eiffel tower t-shirts and necklaces.  Our flight left at 7:05pm but with catching the shuttle bus and needing to be there early we finished touring at 3pm retrieved our luggage and had a stress free journey home.  We all thoroughly enjoyed our time and all of us are keen to go back again.  We will watch for deals on Ryanair and a cold, rainy February weekend may be the perfect time to go and explore the Musee D'Orsay, Invalides and Versailles.